What does it mean to have financial freedom? Financial Independence has nothing to do with your net worth (assets less liabilities). To achieve financial independence, you only need to do three things!

For most of America, “occupied by people, who vote with, on average, common sense,”[1] President Trump has been a refreshing change as president. He has actually done what he said he was going to do with less than two weeks in office!

The Left and the Democrats hate him because they believe he will put a stop to their socialist agenda. Furthermore, they cannot believe Trump got elected in the first place. They can thank Barrack H. Obama for his eight years of failed policies and lies to the American people, which has ruined the economy for many Americans, left the middle-east in complete chaos, and ramped-up racism in the United States. With the exception of a small minority on both sides, I thought racism had been mostly eradicated since the mid-1980’s. In addition, Obama was not entirely happy with the mess he created so he pitted men against women, gays against straights, rich against poor, public school teachers against private & home school teachers, and the educated against the blue-collar working class.

The Right and many Republicans don’t like Trump either. They argue that since he wants to re-negotiate “free-trade” deals, he is against free trade. Even Glenn Beck made a statement that all he wants Trump to do is follow the Constitution. First, Beck and the other Trump-hating conservatives are just as bad as the liberal-left. In today’s environment, the average American has no idea what the Constitution says; it has not been followed for the past 75-to-100 years. Secondly, free-trade has not existed in the United States or any other country for well over 100 years; probably longer. If we truly had free trade, we would need no agreement; or, the agreement would be about one paragraph long. The existing so-called “free-trade” agreements pick winners and losers and line the pockets of the politically connected. By re-negotiating these unconscionable restrictive deals, Trump can only improve things for more Americans.

Another benefit with Trump as President and his billionaire-cabinet; they are not doing this for the money. In fact, most are not accepting any compensation and Trump is donating his presidential salary to charity. Ben Franklin and George Washington, along with many of the American Founders never received any compensation for their public service. Franklin warned us that if it became profitable to seek public office, we would revert back to where we had come from (Europe) and only attract scoundrels who are in it for the money. Franklin’s warning went unheeded. We now have a professional political class that have become members of the top 10% at the expense of poor and middle class taxpayers.

I believe that the major media, academia, and the professional political class are most afraid of Donald J. Trump actually having a successful presidency. If Trump succeeds, the average voter will realize that we do not need professional career politicians. The professional political class, aided by academia, the judiciary, and the media, have been responsible for destroying the United States and what it is stands for---FREEDOM. The United States of America is not a democracy, which as Aristotle stated was a perverted form of government, representing tyranny by the many. We are a Constitutional Republic where the Government is charged with protecting our Freedom and Private Property; not taking it away from us as it has been doing for well over 100 years.

Throughout recorded history, the average empire has lasted about 250 years (10 generations of 25 years). The United States of America is in the final two stages before collapse, which would bring us to the year 2026. To wish or assume that we are different is to assume or wish for something that has never occurred; everything as with life, has an ending.[2]

President Trump may be able to create enough jobs, making many of our problems fade away. He has an almost impossible task ahead of him. Hopefully he can slow things down and delay the implosion of the Empire of the United States of America. We all need to give him a chance. He certainly cannot do any worse than Obama did during the past eight years.

Dum spiro, spero—While I breathe I hope.

Robert G. Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.

[1] Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, Access To Energy, Vol.44 no. 5, December 2016. According to Dr. Robinson, if you look at the electoral map of the United States, “Most of the land is occupied by people who vote with, on average, common sense. It is in the population centers on the coasts that the densely packed crowd makes, on average, the poorer political decisions. While many accomplished individualists are found in cities, there is a statistical tendency toward more group think in these places.” There is a tendency to revert to the lowest common denominator or to the mean.

The American Dream has already been lost to many within 50% of the U.S. population that pays little-to-no income taxes. The American Dream will also disappear for the middle-to-upper classes if drastic changes are not made. To recapture the American Dream, we must first understand our inalienable rights:

1. All Americans have the inalienable right to self-defense and should be able to have the weapons of their choice to protect their lives, their family, and their property. Individuals have the right to keep, carry, and bear arms without the Second Amendment; and, if the State denies this right, it should become responsible and financially liable to protect its’ citizens, residents, and their property.

2. Economic freedom is just as important to Americans as religious freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, voting, etc. but, the power elites and branches of government have purposely reinterpreted the Constitution, granting government more and more power at the expense of individual freedom. Without economic freedom, we are all slaves.

3. The income tax is a slave tax as understood by the Founders of the United States and there was no income tax while our Founders were alive. The government created by the Founders in 1787 is best described by Thomas Jefferson, “. . . a wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circles of our felicities.” As explained by Thomas Jefferson, the Founders did not anticipate government regulation of economic activity nor a direct tax on labor, i.e., they considered an income tax on wages to be tantamount to slavery. In spite of the Bill of Rights–the first ten Amendments to the Constitution–being unchanged, Americans are saddled with extensive regulation with respect to their economic activity, along with a permanent and progressive income tax. Although the Sixteenth Amendment allows Congress to “lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived,” it did not amend, modify, or replace the Fourth Amendment (the right to be secure in one’s papers and effects), or the Fifth Amendment (the right not to be compelled to be a witness against oneself). Therefore, the administration and collection of the income tax is unconstitutional. However, do not stop filing your tax returns and paying your taxes; the IRS will destroy you if you do not follow the law as they understand it to be. Instead, spread the word. The more people that understand this fraud perpetrated on the American public, the greater the likelihood a consumption or national sales tax will be strongly considered as a replacement for the income (slave) tax. Forget the flat tax, it will still require enforcement by the IRS and violations of our 4th and 5th Amendment rights; and, it is still a slave tax whether flat or progressive.

How did this happen? Our Founders started us on the road to individual freedom but, somewhere along the way, we Americans took the wrong turn and have reversed course. James Madison warned the Colonists that “. . . there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.” Jefferson continued, “Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.”

What better way to control the masses than by government-controlled compulsory schooling. The clergy, which controlled much of the education of the masses up through the 18th century, has been replaced by government-controlled compulsory schooling. The new religion being taught is democracy and the need for greater government power to solve America’s problems.

Democracy has been described as two wolves and a lamb deciding what’s for dinner; freedom is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. Former President Ronald Reagan rightly stated, “Government is not the solution to our problem government is the problem.” Although the power-elites controlling government would like us to believe we live in a democracy, and that democracy is a good thing, America was intended to be a Constitutional Republic, with a limited government whose only responsibility was to protect the inalienable rights of individuals.

Understand your rights, educate those around you (family, friends & associates), be prepared for disasters (e.g., hurricanes, riots), become self-sufficient and financially independent; be able to get away from your home, if necessary, especially if you live in any major metropolitan area (New York, Chicago, St. Louis, etc.). If Americans become knowledgeable on these issues and wake up to the realization that big government is not the answer, we can begin to recapture the American Dream.